MORE NEWS, 9-22: STUDYING STUPID; THE INTENSITY OF EMISSIONS; ECONOMY, CAP&TRADE CUT EMISSIONS; WILL SENATE BLOCK WORLD CLIMATE ACTION?

STUDYING STUPID
Are We Living in ‘The Age of Stupid’?
Andrew C. Revkin, September 21, 2009 (NY Times)

"…The Age of Stupid…is a scorching appeal for humans to avoid knowingly up-ending the earth’s climate, delivered from the vantage-point of 2055, when the giant London Eye ferris wheel looks more like a waterwheel, with its bottom immersed in the Thames, along with much of central London. Its narrator, played by Pete Postlethwaite, is a Beckett-style loner who is a caretaker for all that remains of human science, culture and history, packed in a tower rising from the wave-dappled Arctic Ocean somewhere near the North Pole…

"The film starts at the end, spinning through a fast-forward collection of the worst possible worst-case scenarios for climate should no effort be made to curb greenhouse gases. By 2055, the planet has been ravaged by drought and storm, coastlines have flooded, millions have been dislocated or thrust into conflict. Flicking a touch-screen computer, the caretaker of the Arctic archive, a variant on Dickens’ Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, wiles away the hours scrolling through video snippets from our decade, musing on how we had the knowledge and tools to transform our energy system, but chose to stick with business as usual."

Interview with The Age of Stupid director Franny Armstrong. Trailer follows. From MarcGunther via YouTube

"…[The film] is the product of six years of improvisational fund-raising, filmmaking and distribution work by Franny Armstrong, a Briton best known for McLibel, her documentary on a seven-year court battle between McDonald’s and two vegetarian anti-meat, anti-corporate campaigners…From the beginning, around 2002, [Ms. Armstrong] said one goal was to humanize the climate challenge the same way the feature film “Traffic” took on the sweeping story of the drug trade. Initially she planned a conventional documentary following the stories of six people in different parts of the world whose lives were interrelated in some way by energy and related conflicts (including the war in Iraq). These characters include a wealthy entrepreneur in India who wants to end poverty while creating the country’s first discount airline; a young woman in Nigeria who aspires to be a doctor but scratches a living in lands fouled by oil extraction; a young man in England fighting to install wind turbines but facing strident opposition from wealthy landowners who say they are worried about global warming, but appear more worried about their view.

"The wind-power fight presents just about the most vivid portrait of the “nimby” (not in my back yard) syndrome that I can recall seeing. The scenes in India, with Jeh Wadia, the entrepreneur, traveling by private jet and chauffeured car, may not play well there or in other fast-growing developing countries, where millions of people are trying to build businesses. But Ms. Armstrong said she’s still in touch with the airline tycoon and he harbors no hard feelings."

Message from the President of the Maldives from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.

"The name for the film came from a comment by Alvin DuVernay, who spent decades working for Shell Oil in the Gulf of Mexico and lost his New Orleans home in Hurricane Katrina…Ms. Armstrong said she decided the material needed to be framed from the future because so much of the climate challenge derives from the time lag between emissions and the resulting climate change…Her first structure had two teenagers as narrators, but she realized that would result in viewers being bombarded with blame from end to end. She eventually settled on the curator character — whose tone is more a mix of sardonic and wistful than purely accusatory — and reached out to Mr. Postlethwaite after she learned he was trying to get a wind turbine installed on his home.

"Ms. Armstrong, not content with pushing for climate action through the film alone, has helped create several new initiatives, one being NotStupid.org, and the other the 10:10 movement, which is trying to get companies, schools, organizations and everyone else to commit to cutting emissions of greenhouse gases 10 percent by 2010…The film opens in 440 theaters in the United States Monday evening and in 63 countries at last count, ranging from Israel to Madagascar. (There would have been 64, but the Nigerian government just canceled the screening in Lagos, she said, after realizing that part of the film focuses on accusations of government human-rights violations and misuse of oil money.)…"


THE INTENSITY OF EMISSIONS
Carbon intensity in focus as China's Hu heads to UN
Emma Graham-Harrison (w/Gerard Wynn and David Fox), September 21, 2009 (Reuters)

"China's President Hu Jintao may lay down a carbon intensity target for his country at [the UN Summit on Climate Change]…as he seeks to show Beijing's commitment to fighting climate change.

"A pledge from the world's biggest emitter to cut the amount of greenhouse gasses produced for each dollar of national income -- while short of an absolute cap on output -- would counter critics of Beijing who says it is taking too little action…It could also pressure other major emitters to kickstart stalled talks on a new framework to tackle global warming, and give the Chinese negotiating team a strong bottom line going into the key negotiations in Copenhagen this December."

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"A senior Chinese official has already promised an "important" speech laying out "the next policies, measures and actions that China is going to take", and in private bureaucrats say the speech will contain at least one numerical target…[A]nalysts, academics and campaigners say a carbon intensity goal would be in line both with domestic policies, and with a government commitment to keep economic development as its top priority even while it tackles major issues like climate change…

"A carbon target is earmarked for inclusion in China's still unpublished blueprint for development between 2011 and 2015…Beijing's worries about energy security and massive pollution had already prompted the introduction of an energy intensity target from 2006, but a carbon target will also speed up a planned boost in renewables like wind and hydropower…"

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"…[D]espite its roots in a domestic political agenda, if Hu unveils a carbon intensity target at the United Nations, his choice of timing and location has a resounding political message…A carbon target would be hard for China's critics in the United States to dismiss out of hand, because former President George W. Bush set a carbon intensity goal for his country after rejecting the Kyoto Protocol.

"It would appeal to those in the financial industry who hope to see China set up a carbon trading scheme, as the goal would boost Beijing's ability to measure output of the gasses…The target could also dovetail with plans touted by some players in the European Union to establish "sectoral carbon crediting", to extend the carbon market after 2012…[C]ompanies in sectors like steel and power that beat a certain emission or energy intensity benchmark would qualify for carbon offset credits which would be tradable in Europe's emissions trading scheme…[This] gives developing countries an financially viable way to contain emissions growth, although if economies expand too fast even massive improvements in efficiency might not be enough to contain dangerous emissions…"


ECONOMY, CAP&TRADE CUT EMISSIONS
Financial crisis driving down emissions: report
Shane MacLeod, September 21, 2009 (Australian Broadcasting Company News)

"New figures suggest the economic downturn has led to the biggest fall in carbon emissions in more than three decades…But although the economic downturn is driving down emissions, the figures suggest that carbon trading schemes - like those in the European Union - are also contributing to the decline.

"With the developed world's reliance on fossil fuels, there is a well-known link between economic activity and carbon pollution…A global summary being prepared by the International Energy Agency (IEA) suggests it has been a substantial decline…"

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"The scale of the fall will not be revealed until later this month, but reports suggest it is an unprecedented amount, bigger even than the decline in carbon emissions that accompanied the world's last major recession in the early 1980s…But it has not been entirely due to reduced economic activity. The agency estimates about a quarter of the reduction it has identified is the result of regulation…"

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"The IEA's chief economist says the figures show it is much less difficult for the world to achieve the reductions in carbon emissions that scientists are saying will be needed…[I]t is also evidence that the way of doing that is to disconnect economic growth from fossil fuels…

"The report suggests that the shelving of coal-fired power stations is having an impact as well…[But] if the global economy comes out of the current downturn, there will be a rapid acceleration in carbon emissions…The IEA's report will be released just ahead of the next round of global climate negotiations in Bangkok at the end of the month."


WILL SENATE BLOCK WORLD CLIMATE ACTION?
EU worries U.S. Senate dragging its feet on climate
Timothy Gardner (w/ Xavier Briand), September 17, 2009 (Reuters)

"The EU ambassador to the United States said…any delay by the U.S. Senate that pushes action on climate into next year could subject the country to the charge that domestic politics will always trump its international commitments.

"Such a move would postpone the formation of an overall U.S. climate plan until after a U.N. climate meeting in Copenhagen in December, when 190 countries hope to craft a new treaty to fight greenhouse gas emissions…[John Bruton, EU ambassador to the United States, said] asking an international conference ‘to sit around looking out the window for months, while one chamber of the legislature of one country deals with its other business, is simply not a realistic political position.’"

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"The United States is the top greenhouse gas emitter after China…U.S. Democratic senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry are writing climate legislation and hope to unveil it this month after two delays…They are building on a bill passed narrowly in the U.S. House of Representatives in June that aims to cut U.S. emissions 17 percent under 2005 levels by 2020.

"President Barack Obama wants quick congressional action on a bill…Obama will continue to work with the Senate to make sure it addresses climate change…But several Democratic senators have questioned whether it is possible to vote on a climate change bill this year, with healthcare reform taking up so much time."



"In addition some lawmakers from agricultural and heavy coal-burning states oppose the bill, saying it would raise energy prices. It is unclear whether the Senate has the 60 votes needed to pass the bill this year.

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is also taking steps on greenhouse gases, including setting efficiency standards for automobiles, in case the bill dies in the Senate. The EPA action is seen as a way to spur the legislation along…"